I haven’t seen a Box Turtle in our yard since the very beginning of summer. Yesterday this Box Turtle sauntered all the way across our back yard into the woods. I wonder if he was looking for a place to hibernate for the winter.
Prior to hibernation, box turtles tend to move further into the woods, where they dig a chamber for overwintering. Eastern box turtles hibernate at depth of about 10 centimeters and frequently stay within .5 from their summer habitat.
This cut, little baby bunny was just munching away along on the trail at Fort Hill on Cape Cod. I did not faze him at all. He would look at me and munch away. I was so close that I had to step back to get a good photograph.
After he finished eating, he lay down on the trail to take a nap while I clicked away.
So cute, don’t you think?
We took a walk on Coast Guard Beach in Eastham down to Nauset Spit and saw what was a huge “island of seals” not far off of the beach. There were hundreds of them. We had seen a few seals here and there along the coast but never this many. No wonder the Great White Sharks like to come nearby waters to feast.
There must be a sandbar where they all congregate. It was low tide when we took our walk…I wonder if they are still there at high tide?
Just as we were going to sleep the other night our Motion Detector lights went on in the back yard. I thought it was probably the racoon that comes by periodically, hoping to raid the bird feeders. But I got up anyway, just to see what it was. And there…standing by the bird feeder was this huge coyote. It looked like a silhouette against the dark woods and the light in front. He was big and muscular and looked just like a wolf.
So I went online this morning to read about coyotes on Cape Cod and this is what I learned:
“It has been known for several years that the coyotes in the Cape Cod area have much in common with wolves. Mainly wolf DNA. Some coyotes in MA that have been tested have come up as 90% eastern wolf. I have received a number of reports where people claim to have seen large, wolf-like canines on Cape Cod.”
This certainly looks like what I saw. Wow!
(This is a photograph of a coyote that I took a few years ago in Colorado as the one I saw here was gone before I could get my camera and get a good photograph. But the one I saw here looked very similar.)
I saw plenty of seals playing in the ocean at Coast Guard Beach on Cape Cod the other day. I know they are the primary food for the Great White Sharks, so I kept my eye out for that prominent “fin” in the water.
There were some boogie boarders who thought it was cool to paddle out to try and get closer to the seals. I don’t think they know that a Great White Shark was spotted there several days ago. That would not be cool!
